


Wondering Eyes

by NinjaOtta



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Angel!Carmilla, Carmilla AU, F/F, angel au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-03-26 18:58:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3861037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NinjaOtta/pseuds/NinjaOtta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every day, every hour, every moment spent training has led to this. To receiving a charge to watch over. To wings, and midnight briefings from Paradise, and a free life among humans. Mircalla is ready to face it all. There's just one thing she never could have counted on. AU. Also posted on ff.net.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time using AO3 so give me a little leeway to get used to it. This story has been posted on ff.net but it was recommended that I choose to post here for a larger audience. Thank you to all those who read this!

_“Wondering eyes need no disguise._

_It’s obvious that this love never dies._

_Never dies.”_

_~Guardian Angel, Abandon All Ships_

 

She could feel her gut twisting with nerves.  The doorways she passed all seemed blurred together, until the one she needed jumped out in front of her:

_Deaziel_.

The angel in question lifted cold eyes to her as she opened the door, motioning for Mircalla to sit.  The chair was small; uncomfortable.  Then again, Mircalla mused, that was likely the point.  Deaziel was cold, cruel and strict.  Many potential guardians had backed down and switched to another course, like Seeing and Visionary Studies, in the face of having to work with Her Disapprovingness.

Not Mircalla.  She had her sights set on an Archangel Scholarship, which required Guardianship experience if she was to even think of applying.  No disapproving senior angel was going to scare her off.

“You applied for a Guardianship placement, correct?”

“If I hadn't, I wouldn't be here,” Mircalla replied lazily.  “But yes, I did.”

Deaziel’s eyes narrowed coldly.

“You are intending to remain in Guardianship under my tuition for the duration of your charge’s life and beyond?”

“Yes, to the first; no to the second.  Guardianship isn't my one-and-done, I'm afraid.”

Understanding flickered dimly in Deaziel’s eyes.

“You intend to apply for the placement on the Archangel Scholarship under the tutelage of Lord Raziel?” she enquired.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

“You have a sharp tongue, fledgling,” Deaziel snapped.  “Perhaps that loud mouth would be better suited to Heralding and Messenger Responsibilities.”

“With all due respect, Deaziel, I think I know how to run my life,” Mircalla growled.  “Will you accept me or not; I'm not here to have my time wasted and there are other places I could go.”

Deaziel studied her for a moment, as if debating whether her threat was genuine.  Then, apparently satisfied, she reached into a drawer in her desk and pulled out a file.

“You have commendable credentials as a student, Mircalla,” she conceded, tapping the file.  “This is some basic information; your charge and the details of your placement and human identity should be sent through within the week.”

“Thank you,” Mircalla took the file, curling her fingers around it and smiling thinly.  “I look forward to working with you.”

“Keep up the attitude you showed today and you’ll soon wish you’d transferred,” Deaziel snapped.

“We’ll see,” Mircalla smirked as she stepped out of the office.  “We’ll see.”

* * *

 

Deaziel didn't lie: four days later, Mircalla received a large manila file with all the details of her new life as a human.  She was to start in two months, a few weeks past the beginning of the new school year, and adopt a new name for her new life.

“Creative,” she muttered, staring at the anagram of her name printed on the page.  “I hope this works out...”

* * *

 

The next two months passed in a haze of last-minute training, rules on flying drilled into her head for when she was finally given her wings, and choosing how to live and act and be once she had entered the human world.

“You know, being an asshole isn't so bizarre in humans,” Mircalla glared across at the smirking figure in the doorway, his eyes dancing with amusement at his joke.

“Being a pathetic suck-up is also a plausible human personality, so you needn't change at all, Will,” she snarked, swinging her bag onto her shoulder and straightening.  “I take it you've come to tell me something with smug satisfaction, only to find out I already know?”

“Well, if you must know –”

“Save it, Will.  I know we’re getting our wings today.  I talked to Deaziel last night.”

“Fine,” he snapped.  “What do you reckon yours will be like?”

“Big and feathery,” she muttered, stalking past him into the corridor.  He fell into step beside her as she reached the stairwell, still grinning irritatingly.

“Besides that.  Like, what colour?  Will they have stripes?  Spots?  Black or white or green?  What shape?”

“You spent all night wondering what your _wings_ are going to look like?” she snapped, unable to believe it.  He was an asshole: why would he be daydreaming about flying?

“I wanna look impressive; don’t you?”

“One; we won’t have our wings for most of our time on the ground and two – I'm impressive enough without wings.”

“Touché,” he said, and shut up.

_Finally_ , she thought, as the pair of them spotted ten of the other Guardian Fledglings waiting for them to arrive.  Eventually, all sixteen of them were assembled, a mirror placed in front of each, and Deaziel stepped forward to greet each of them and bestow a pair of wings and a new identity upon them.  Mircalla could feel her heart pounding high in her chest, clamouring like a struck gong in her lungs.

Deaziel reached Will, ninth from the end, and Mircalla forced herself not to flinch as she felt the heat blaze from his form as he received his wings.

Deaziel paused in front of her, and she stared up into those cold, unfeeling eyes, steeling herself for the imminent fire under her skin that some of the older angels had described.

“Mircalla,” she said.  Mircalla tilted her head upwards as the moment of truth approached.  Deaziel’s fingers made contact with her forehead and Mircalla felt white-hot acid pain run in burning rivulets under her skin.  It was almost as if her skin were rising away from her bones, the feeling of her body unfurling from itself as gleaming feather shafts lifted from nowhere, wings unfolding effortlessly as the pain faded and the feeling of cool, rippling water over her shoulder blades replaced it.

The sensations eventually subsided and Mircalla opened her eyes.  Deaziel had moved on down the line, and Mircalla flexed her new wings and raised her head.

The mirror placed in front of her greeted her as she stared at her own reflection.

“Hey, Carmilla.”


	2. Chapter 2

Carmilla pulled her bag a little higher on her shoulder.  The dorm was just a few more doors further down, and in it was her charge.  She knew everything she needed to: the girl’s name, her curious nature and slightly awkward personality; her protective father and a mother she lost at the age of nine.  She’s seen pictures, researched old addresses to get the impression she needed before settling in as the girl’s new Guardian angel.  She closed her eyes as she stopped in front of the door, taking a deep breath as she recalled the flight – or rather, fall – down to Earth.

* * *

 

_The wind snarled around her as she stared over the edge of the precipice.  A girl with silver hair, tattooed arms and piercing blue eyes set her jaw next to her.  To her right, Will gritted his teeth.  Carmilla said nothing.  She looked out and understood this flight was possibly the most important she’d ever make, and the first major one any of the fledglings had undertaken.  Get it wrong and there could be some serious injuries on hand._

_Will was – annoyingly – coming with her.  They were both being sent to Silas University in Styria, Austria, to meet with – and room with – their charges.  Will had some over-muscular human-who-was-really-a-puppy.  Carmilla had a girl she had to watch over and take care of.  Everything would be sent down as luggage later on, but she had to fly down to Earth herself, and that meant a terrifying two hundred foot drop through screaming winds before she reached the boundary between worlds, which was, in short, a gigantic kitchen sink plughole._

_They sure knew how to get young fledglings to think on their feet – well, wings.  Deaziel stepped up behind them._

_“You’re going to have to jump, I'm afraid.  The sooner the better.”_

_Will glared about himself, as if daring anyone to push him.  Someone behind Carmilla stifled a cough.  The girl with the silver hair lifted her wings, the sharp, curved edges and russet-brown feathers gleaming, and leapt over the edge of the precipice, eyes closed and face tense._

_For a moment, the others waited in silence._

_Then, a sudden upwards burst of wind sent them all stumbling backwards, and the girl rocketed upwards, wings spread and hair wild.  Carmilla stared up in amazement._

_“I knew it couldn't be too hard,” muttered Will._

_“If it was so easy, why didn't you do it yourself?” she snapped back.  Without waiting for him to reply she spread her wings, feeling the silky black feathers lift behind her, and stepped over the edge._

_For a sickening half-minute, she was falling through nothingness, unable to orientate herself and having to force air into her lungs as gusts tore at her from all sides.  Then, just as quickly as it began, all the sensations stopped as her open wings caught a powerful updraft that sent her spinning upwards through the turbulent air, everything inside her alive._

_She caught sight of the first jumper out of the corner of her eye, the curved red wings unmistakeable, and saw Will’s plumage – deep, speckled slate-grey – go hurtling past her as he jumped too.  Mist whipped past her, the cold almost singeing her skin, but she couldn't bring herself to care as the thrill of flying coiled and uncoiled relentlessly inside the once-empty cavern of her chest._

_Deaziel’s voice cut through her thoughts, her mentor hovering in a still patch of air to her left._

_“All of you get over yourselves!  Flying isn't a game and you have places to be.  The boundary will be opened shortly and I doubt anyone wants to get left behind!”_

_Light blazed from beneath her as she finished, and like moths to a flame the new Guardians gathered in the still air above the boundary._

_“It’s open.  You may go now.”_

_Carmilla snorted as, with one last scowl, Deaziel soared away, back to the cliff they had all leapt off just minutes ago._

_“Best of luck, then!”_

_Carmilla twisted to see a grinning face with too-green eyes and messy blue hair before a former classmate dived past and was gone, the brilliant light swallowing her.  The others began to follow: the silver-haired girl dove in and Carmilla, not wanting to be last, tucked in her wings and dropped into a gannet-dive, praying she’d chosen the correct manoeuvre as the winds twisted around her._

_The light grew brighter and brighter, until finally she felt a powerful force catch her and drag her in, spinning her round and round and spitting her out at the end, leaving her thrilled and breathless and staring out across broad expanses of blue sky and green earth and lapis-lazuli oceans._

* * *

 

That had been two days ago, and now she had landed, recovered from her heart-stopping flight and finally put all the lessons on hiding her wings into practice, she was ready to meet her charge at last.  She swallowed the irregular pounding of her heart and pushed the door open.

_“Um, excuse me, but who the hell are you?”_


	3. Chapter 3

“No, come on now... _please?_ Just – stay upright whilst I turn you on and – _ugh!_ Why can’t the batteries ever stay in?!”

The tiny blonde girl was alone in her dorm, fiddling with her camera and trying to get it to remain both upright and in one piece.  So far, no luck.

“Right,” she muttered, tongue caught between her teeth in concentration.  “If you just – _no!_ ” she shouted as the batteries clattered to the floor again.  A girl with slightly wild red curls poked her head round the door.

“Need a hand?” she asked.  Laura craned her neck round to look at Perry, unwilling to move her hands in case she dropped her camera.

“No – no, thanks, Perry.  I’m all good in here.  Just...trying to set up my webcam, but I think I’ve got it now.”

“You sure?” Perry asked, peering further into the room.

“Yeah, I’m sure.  Thanks for asking, though,” Laura smiled over her shoulder, and Perry offered a smile in return before retreating, closing the door behind her.  Turning back towards the camera, Laura let her head drop with a sigh.  “Right, one more try...” she muttered, before her head shot up.

Abandoning the camera to let it thud onto the desk, Laura burrowed into one of her as-yet-unpacked suitcases and began dragging clothes about in search of –

“Aha!” she crowed in triumph as she held up the roll of Sellotape like a trophy.  Scrambling over to the desk, she picked up her stubborn camera and bound shut the little plastic square that was supposed to hold the batteries in.  Then she set about mounting it on the desk and hooking it up to her laptop.

“Aaaaanndd...Done!”

Laura sat back, admiring her webcam newly set up on her desk in her dorm.

“ _Lau-raaaa?_ ” her roommate Betty burst into the room, eyes bright and blonde hair swinging wildly.  “What’re you doing?”

“Betty!” Laura spun in her chair, smiling.  “I’m, uh, doing a journalism project.  Just setting up to get started tonight.  How’d you do?” she asked, remembering the grade her friend had been going to receive.

“62%,” Betty grinned, bouncing down on her bed.  “Not bad, I’d say.  Gentlewoman’s C.”

“That’s awesome!” Laura forced herself to grin, knowing that Betty’s love for partying was probably the main reason why her roommate hadn't got a higher mark.  As much as she loved Betty, she wished that the blonde girl would take a little more time to think about her schoolwork every once in a while.

“You _do_ know what that means though, don’t you?” Betty chirped, bouncing off her bed and dashing to the wardrobe.  “It means we should celebrate!”

“Betty...” Laura started, but she was cut off.

“No-no.  Come on.  We’re going to have a little fun, you and me,” she beamed.  When Laura still looked reluctant she rolled her eyes.  “Come _on_ , Laura.  It’s six pm.  On a _Friday_.  If you don’t get out of here soon you’re going to get stuck to that chair like glue.”

Laura sighed, smiling.

“Alright.  What harm can it do?”

Betty squealed, seizing Laura’s wrist and dragging her over to the wardrobe to start getting the pair of them dressed for their evening out.  It took a while for Betty to find something suitable from the tame collection of clothes Laura’s dad had allowed her, but eventually the pair of them were dressed up and on their way out, Betty practically dragging her roommate by the hand as Laura became increasingly nervous as they neared the party.

“Come on, Laura, it’ll be fine,” she shouted over the music.  “It’s like you said: what harm can it do?”

* * *

 

Three hours later and Laura was feeling slightly less nervous.  The food was good and, though she knew better than to try the punch, everything seemed to be going smoothly: people were dancing and talking a laughing; the Alchemy Club hadn't mutated anything yet, although you were never quite sure what they _had_ been doing; and Betty was having the time of her life for the fifth night in a row.

Sitting on the sidelines to avoid getting trampled, Laura was starting to feel glad that she’d accompanied her roommate to the party.  College was, in its most basic form, an experience.  She should have a bit of fun; step outside her comfort zone once in a while.  The Summer Society and the Zeta-Omega rivalries were burning brightly, but despite the natural friction between the groups no fighting had broken out yet.

No-one had inexplicably mutated from consuming the refreshments being served by people who were suspected members of the Alchemy Club.

No-one had been shot, or stabbed, or assaulted, or – well, anything, really.  It seemed for all the world like a normal party full of young people doing stupid, fun things.

Then the sky split open and people started screaming.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy CRAP.  
> It is I friends, returned to you with this AU (hey! That rhymed) after months of GCSE revision, a three-month summer of blockage, and the beginning of A-Levels.  
> I guess I feel I should apologise for all the wait, but to be honest, it couldn't be helped and I'm just grateful to anyone who's stuck with this/still has faith that I will update (I will, don't worry!!)  
> Anyways, thanks so much for putting up with this wait. I look forward to hearing what you think of this next chapter!

Laura’s head snapped up, eyes wide as she stared at the brilliant, blazing light that seemed to have split the night sky in two.  All around her, people were running this way and that, trying to get back to their friends, their dorms, or some kind of shelter.  She began to look frantically for Betty, but ended up having to scramble out of the way as a hoard of partygoers made a mad dash for the dorms.

“Betty!” she shouted, desperately trying to make her voice audible above the din.  “Bets, where are you?”

Unable to see her roommate among the chaos, she retreated back to the dorm with the majority of the others, praying that Betty would be alright with someone else.  Pulling the door shut behind her, she dared to look out of the window at the sky.

The brilliant light had gone.

Dazed and confused, Laura staggered to her bed and collapsed onto it, face down into her yellow pillow.  Despite the adrenaline surging like a stampede of wildebeest through her bloodstream it took only minutes for her to fall into unconsciousness.

* * *

 

Light peeled her eyelids back, and Laura lifted her head a little off her pillow.  The first thing through her head was that her laptop was still on.  She groaned, hauling herself out of bed and stumbling over to the desk.

“Have you been on all night?” she asked the machine, staring into the answerless screen as she pulled up the internet and checked to see what was going on in the world.  A video popped up and started to play, and before she could silence it her mind processed what was being said, and she began to listen:

“ _Scientists around the globe are still uncertain of the cause of last night’s extraordinary aerial light show.  They are currently asking for any footage from cameras and mobile phones to see if they can further analyse the event, but as yet theories range from exploding satellites to alien space-travel...”_

“Hey – hey, Betty!” Laura sprang off her chair to her roommate’s bed.  “That thing from last night – the light – it’s on the news, look –”

She seized the aggressively pink covers and pulled them back to reveal –

“Betty?” she turned away from the empty bed.  “Bets?”

The bed was empty.  She blinked, staring at the multitude of pink pillows before her.

Betty was gone.

* * *

 

“Ugh!”

Laura slammed the phone down, glaring up at the ceiling as if challenging whatever higher power had saddled her with this morning’s events to do anything worse than they already had.

It was three hours since she had awoken to find her roommate missing after a strange, dazzling light had ripped open the sky – and _no_ - _one_ was helping her.  It was ridiculous.  She’d made exactly seventeen phone calls and not one of them had been of any use.

Everyone was either assuming that she wanted a new roommate, or that she was prank calling.  The light in the sky had sparked a gigantic wave of people calling up various authorities claiming to have lost things, reporting people missing or babbling that they couldn’t remember the previous night – and almost half of them had been pranks.  While she was sure the emergency services were having a tough time of it, she was also pretty certain that it was better than her situation.  At least people sympathised with them.

“Come on, Betty,” she pleaded with her rather sad-looking elderly flip-phone.  “Just...text me or something?  Say you slept over at some smashed frat boy’s bachelor pad...”

After another hour of fruitless, infuriatingly unhelpful calls to the university, she gave up.

“If they’re not going to help find Betty – fine,” she decided, an intensely tight smile on her face.  “I’ve got every second of Veronica Mars memorised and a three-week journalism project for all my findings.  I’ll do this myself.  A girl is missing: how hard can this be?”

* * *

 

The answer was: very hard.  Like, the-chiselled-granite-quality-of-a-frat-boy’s-pecks-type-hard.

Ever-helpful floor dom Perry was sympathetic but had little useful information, the Zetas hadn’t seen anything above boob-height that they found memorable, and most of the normal girls had simply remember Betty being with Laura – which she had been.

“God, Betty, where did you go last night?” Laura asked her absent roommate, praying silently for the answer to step through the door and save her from this impossible task.

At that moment, the door swung open and a girl in leather trousers with long, dark wavy hair and ivory skin stepped into her dorm.

“Hey.”

“Um, excuse me, but who the hell are you?”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy heck! Wow! People are reading this story!!  
> Okay now that my little excitable rant is over, here's the next chapter. I'll let you all know now: this AU will follow the basic plotline of the series itself, but there will be a few key differences (aside from the 'angel' bit).  
> Thank you to everyone who has reviewed - it makes it so much better to write this knowing that there's an audience of people wanting to read the end product.

_“Um, excuse me, but who the hell are you?”_

The girl strode casually into the room, slinging her bag down on the bed and starting to make herself at home in the little dorm.

“Carmilla.  I’m your new roommate, Sweetheart.”

Laura stared in utter disbelief.  Some condescending punk wannabe had just marched into her room and acted like she lived there.  No, wait – she claimed to be her roommate.

_Her roommate?!_

The tinny rock music that the girl – Carmilla – had set off playing from some little speakers was doing her head in already, and Laura watched in outrage as she rummaged through the fridge, making patronising comments about Laura’s insistence that she _already had a roommate_ , and helping herself to a can of fizzy drink.

And then she had the audacity to claim that, as Laura could produce no Betty, she had to stay – and apparently that meant going through Betty’s stuff, lying on her missing roommate’s bed?  Oh, _hell no!_   This was taking things too far.  She marched over to this Carmilla and snatched a t-shirt of Betty’s out of her marble-white hands.

“This.  Isn’t.  Yours.”

“It’s in my half of the room, _Cutie_.  I’ll make you a deal: you cough up Betty,” she yanked the top from Laura.  “And I’ll hit the road.”

She dumped the t-shirt and began lounging on the bed, an infuriating smirk on her lips and one perfectly-sculpted eyebrow quirked in something that was half-challenge, half-amusement.

Oh, this was _not_ happening.

* * *

 

As nervous as Carmilla had been, this was turning out to be, quite simply, the easiest assignment she’d ever been tasked with.  The girl was so easily – adorably – wound up by her lazy attitude, and she kept twittering on about having a roommate.  Whatever.  Sure she did.  It wasn’t like she could change anything.  At least she kept good food.

So, she mused.  This was her charge.  Laura Hollis, nineteen years old, student at Silas University.  Tenacious, childlike and unable to take a hint that she should _stop_ , according to some of the files she’d read.  She seemed like a fun kid.  Plenty of temper, a little too square and a lot too naive: perfect.  Carmilla couldn’t wait to start riling her up.  After all, what was the point of the assignment if she couldn’t have a little fun?  Screw what Deaziel said: it wasn’t like she’d be stuck with this kid forever.  The moment she hit the grave, Carmilla was hitting the road back to Paradise for her Archangel scholarship.

She reached over and cranked her music up a little louder to drown out the nagging voice in the back of her skull wondering why Laura would be so insistent that she had a roommate, when it had been guaranteed to Carmilla that there was a place for her here?

* * *

 

“So,” muttered Laura through clenched teeth the next Tuesday morning.  “It has been three days since my apparent new roommate has barged in here and messed everything up.”

Carmilla was, thankfully, absent at the present time, giving Laura the chance to rant about everything Carmilla did that was driving her up the wall.

“Let’s review some of my tapes, shall we?” she muttered to her ever-recording camera, clicking through the video feed she had from the past few nights.  “She’s impossible.  She keeps stealing Betty’s clothes, and _my chocolate_.  She’s filthy – it’s like she’s never lived in normal human conditions, _God_ – and she’s always asleep.  All.  Day.  Long.  The earliest she’s ever been awake is -” she checked the time stamp on the video she was currently viewing “- Four pm.  At which point she was ‘entertaining’ a girl who _I swear_ is in my anthropology class.  What makes it even better?  She’s in _my bed!_ ”

Laura closed the open computer windows and let her eyes slam shut, letting out a steadying breath through her nose to quell her frustration.

“Now, however?  I think I’m going to have a little revenge.  This -” she held up the carton to her left.  “- is Carmilla’s super-duper-expensive, super-rare-source soy milk that she’s totally forbidden me from touching.  I think I’ll just have a touch of this on my cereal, don’t you?”

She began to pour the milk out into her bowl, glancing down after a moment to see –

“What in Dumbledore’s name – ?!”


	6. Chapter 6

“Blue!” Laura hissed.  “Brilliant, glowing, blue!”  She turned to where Perry and her best friend, LaFontaine, were standing next to her.  “This is not normal.  She’s gotta go, right?  This is a health violation.  It’s gotta be some kind of weird fungus – right?”

“It is – no denying it Laura – odd,” Perry reasoned, scrutinising the softly luminous substance through narrowed eyes with an ‘if-this-violates-health-and-safety-I-am-going-to-flip-my-shit’ expression on her face.

“Odd?” LaFontaine laughed.  “That’s your verdict?  _Odd_?  List five people you know whose soy milk comes from glow-sticks.”

“Come on, now,” Perry insisted.  “You’re here by invitation only.  I’m here to –”

“This is a freak show.  Come on, Perr,” LaFontaine gestured to the glowing cereal bowl.  “This isn’t something we can pretend is normal.”

“It could be a vitamin thing,” Perry waved her hand dismissively.  “Until this – roommate – has had a chance to explain herself, I have no cause to warrant her being thrown out.”

“A _vitamin thing?_ ” LaFontaine asked incredulously.  “Come off it.  I’ve heard Vitamin A helps you see in the dark, but this is ridiculous.”

“Just – why don’t you talk to her Laura?  She can explain things to you.  Maybe a little good communication can fix things here.  You know – clear things up.”

“I could take a sample,” LaFontaine suggested.  “Try to figure out what this stuff is.”

“Okay...” murmured Laura.  “So, you think I should talk to her.  But if that doesn’t work – what?  Go to the Dean?”

“Ooohh... I wouldn’t."

“Not a good idea.”

“Why the hell not?” Laura stared at the suddenly uncertain pair.  “Why would it be a bad idea?”

“The Dean’s...odd,” Perry hedged nervously.  “She’s a little bit strange and it’s probably best to deal with this without her input.  Drawing attention to yourself could be – well –”

“A death wish?” LaFontaine interjected.  Perry shot them a withering glare.

“It’s probably only going to turn up more questions,” she said to Laura, a tight smile on her face.  “I mean – it’s only a fruitless search – none of the other girls ever –”

She seemed to realise what she had said, and clamped her mouth shut.  Laura stared at her.

“ _Other girls_?” she hissed.  “ _Other girls_ have gone missing, and no-one’s done _anything_?”

“It’s not exactly like they did nothing,” Perry muttered.  “They tried to find them – honestly they did – but after a few days – nothing.  They’ve lost – three – before this, and they never found them.  I guess there must be some creeper hanging around on campus, or they all just went home without telling anyone.”

“Okay, one – if there’s a creeper on campus, why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?  Surely the police should get involved,” Laura started, trying to get her head around what she was hearing.  “And two – why would Betty leave all her stuff?  None of this is making sense.”

“I’m – not sure we can help you there, Laura,” Perry stammered.  “Unfortunately, this is out of my jurisdiction as floor dom.  I’ll – we’ll – try to help you out when you need us, but I can’t really tell you much more than what we already have.”

“I’ll take that sample, see if I can find out what it is,” LaFontaine had produced a gigantic syringe out of nowhere, causing Laura to flinch and jump back.  “Sorry.”

Once LaFontaine had the sample they needed, and Laura sat down in front of her computer and stared at the webcam hopelessly.

“I need to talk to these girls, but they’re gone...” she blinked as an idea popped into her head.  “I wonder if any of their friends would be willing to talk?”

“Maybe...not right now,” Perry began.

“They’re shaken up by their loss and – well, you’re on a one-woman mission,” LaFontaine cut in.

“I’ll talk to them, see if they’d let you interview them.”

“Thanks, Perry,” Laura gave a small smile.  It disappeared the next instant as the door banged open and Carmilla slouched into the room.

“I guess – you must be Laura’s new roommate, Carmilla!” Perry smiled at the girl, but she only got a sarcastic response.

Then Carmilla began to strip off her clothes in the middle of the dorm.  Perry and LaFontaine said their goodbyes and left as Carmilla switched her shirts and began poking through the fridge.

“You won’t find your freaky milk in there,” Laura snapped.  For a moment, Carmilla froze.  Then she seemed to remember herself and stood up.

“Come on, it was only a prank,” she smirked, though it seemed a little forced.

“A prank?  You filled this carton with some freaky glowing stuff as a prank?”

“It was glow stick fluid, come on.”

If Laura hadn’t been so freaked out and pissed off by her roommate, she may have noticed how tired and wary Carmilla seemed.  At present, she noticed nothing.

“ _Ugh_ , you are such a _freak_ , you –”

She was interrupted by a knock at the door.  Spinning in her seat, Laura took in the two girls standing there.

“We’re not – intruding – or anything, are we?” one of them asked timidly.

“No – no, of course not!  Hi, um – did Perry talk to you guys?”

“Yeah, she did.  I’m Sarah-Jane, and this is Natalie.  You’re Laura?” the taller of the two asked.

“Yeah, that’s me!  Please – uh, come in, sit down.”

The girls settled themselves on Laura’s bed.  She could see how nervous they felt, but this was so important if she was going to find Betty.  She was in the same position as these girls, and she was going to bring the person who did this to justice, one way or another.

Pausing only to check her camera was running, Laura grabbed a little notebook and a pencil and turned to the pair.

“Okay.  What can you tell me about when your friends went missing?”


End file.
